The year is 1368 and Granada is under threat from violent extremists. Enter Abu Abdallah, the penniless globetrotter who has had wives and concubines on three continents but is still searching for the right woman, and his West African slave Sinan, the one with the brawn, the brains, the looks – and the demons in his past.

They arrive to find Granada's labyrinthine palace-citadel, the Alhambra, nearing its triumphant completion. But Sinan and Abu Abdallah are drawn into a darker maze, where inexplicable events and baffling mysteries lie in wait at every turn and threaten to ruin forever the delicate balance of Muslim-Christian power in Spain.